Do you weigh all prepackaged food?
st476
Posts: 357 Member
Like every single thing? I don't weigh rice cakes, or granola bars, or ice cream bars. I mean, I do sometimes but usually I can't be bothered. The few times that I have, it was either a few grams under or a few (no more than 5) grams over. Nothing that would really make a difference. Machines in factories make them similar sizes so I don't think it's necessary for most things. I'm just wondering if you weigh everything that's prepackaged, and if you weigh some things what are they?
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Yes.
I weigh bread slices (they can vary), protein bars (can weigh more than the package states), eggs (without the shell, they vary in weight in one single package). The more calorie dense the food is, the more variation in calories there is, so I make it a habit to weigh everything. If your calorie deficit is small (lose .5lbs per week) it is a very good idea to weigh everything so you know that you're in a deficit since a 250cal deficit is easy to wipe out.2 -
I weigh some prepackaged food. I eat a lot of the same things regularly so I get a feel for how consistent they are in serving sizes. If it comes in a container, I record that container weight so that I can subtract it and get the actual food weight.
Lean Cuisines I weigh if they feel heavy because they seem to be hand assembled. They sometimes weigh up to 1.2 times what the nutritional info says they should, usually due to (what appears to be) more rice than normal. I even have a food entry in My Foods for "extra Lean Cuisine rice" to add to meals. Sometimes the extra food seems pretty even (with extra everything) so I just enter it as 1.1 (or whatever) servings of the whole meal.0 -
98% of it (I don't weigh it if I'm not at home). I've had protein/meal bars weigh up to 15 grams more than they should (which is typically about 50 extra calories) and it's pretty rare that I get one that weighs what it should or under what it should. Bread slices typically come out to more than a serving (at least the stuff I get) and it's rare to get them to be close to a serving (usually an extra 10 grams or so). My deficit is small when trying to lose, so stuff can quickly wipe out my deficit.2
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No. Maybe I should but I don't usually.0
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Yes. Unless I am away from home.0
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I'd guess I weight 90%. I don't weigh eggs. I occasionally weigh individual yogurt cups. Those types of things I feel will balance out. Granola bars, rice cakes, sliced cheese, candy, and chips can be too far off the single package serving. I've had slices of cheese weighing 30 grams when a serving slice is labeled 25 grams.
Some people don't care to weigh every thing and go with it all balancing out. Some weigh every thing. Some weigh most things. Whatever works for you.0 -
I weigh everything when I'm at home. Even five grams here and there can add up. I suppose it depends on what goals you have. This is what I was thinking too..cerise_noir wrote: »If your calorie deficit is small (lose .5lbs per week) it is a very good idea to weigh everything so you know that you're in a deficit since a 250cal deficit is easy to wipe out.
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I should, but no.0
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Only if I'm not eating the whole pack. It hasn't affected my weight loss so can't be that much off.1
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I weigh almost everything I eat at home. Individual yogurt tubs and eggs are the main exceptions
Just this week, a piece of bread I weighed was 38 grams. The serving size is for 26 grams.2 -
Ice cream bars and yogurt cups, no. The rest, usually yes, unless I ate out a couple times that week and had to estimate anyway, then I just won't bother for a few calories... but there are things that I ALWAYS weigh, like Graze snacks and English muffins, or some brand of waffles, as they can be up to 60 calories off...1
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Nope. Nothing prepackaged in an individual serving. If i was working with a tiny defecit i would though1
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Like every single thing? I don't weigh rice cakes, or granola bars, or ice cream bars. I mean, I do sometimes but usually I can't be bothered. The few times that I have, it was either a few grams under or a few (no more than 5) grams over. Nothing that would really make a difference. Machines in factories make them similar sizes so I don't think it's necessary for most things. I'm just wondering if you weigh everything that's prepackaged, and if you weigh some things what are they?
Hi
I do weigh some things, If You are considering Rice cakes that usually come in a multi pack than Yes I weigh my Frozen vegetables for example. I weigh my Cereals for example. Anything that has both a weight and size listed for the servings then I find that weight is more accurate.
Good Luck
RogerI'd guess I weight 90%. I don't weigh eggs. I occasionally weigh individual yogurt cups. Those types of things I feel will balance out. Granola bars, rice cakes, sliced cheese, candy, and chips can be too far off the single package serving. I've had slices of cheese weighing 30 grams when a serving slice is labeled 25 grams.
Some people don't care to weigh every thing and go with it all balancing out. Some weigh every thing. Some weigh most things. Whatever works for you.
The thing to remember is that the foods we buy that are prepackaged must be at least the stated amount. For example the 12 ounces of sliced cheese package has to be at least 12 ounces, it can be higher but not lower or they can end up in trouble with the state weights and measures people and they would rather err on the high side and not have the bad publicity and fines that can happen otherwise.
Have a Nice Weekend
Roger0 -
I do not weight slices of cheese, pre-cut slices of bread, granola bars, yogurt cups, ice cream bars, chocolate bars, or eggs. I can deal with a few grams of this items being off. I do weigh my prepackaged protein bars. For some reason these are off by enough to matter since they are so calorie dense.
I actually weight everything else.0 -
Like others, not at this point. I lose as expected so my logging is fine. I do have a little buffer in my daily goal though and if I stopped losing for an extended period of time I might start.0
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I think the most common item I see people mention as being off is protein bars and they are all in the US too. I don't eat them so I'm all good on that front!0
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You mean single serving packages? No. The variances are insignificant and, in any event, will average out over time.0
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Single serving packages, nope. That's a little too OCD for me.
But packages that state something like "One chicken breast" - yes, those vary way to much to trust the packaging.0 -
Bread slices, eggs, English muffins, tortillas, and many other things. . . yes. Except for maybe the eggs, I haven't had a single one of those items not weigh more than the serving size in months. And when something's serving size comes out as say 76g when it's listed as 63g, the extra calories can add up quickly if you aren't paying attention.0
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No, I was not necessary for me. I guess I had a large enough deficit that it didn't matter but I never bothered with it.0
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Not a chance in the world that I am going to do that. Very little of my food is packaged anyway.0
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I've gotten into the habit of doing it.
There's a lot of variance.
Somethings I'll notice they consistently weigh what they should and from there just trust it.
I always strive to be within 20 calories of my goal, so the meticulousness helps.0 -
Like every single thing? I don't weigh rice cakes, or granola bars, or ice cream bars. I mean, I do sometimes but usually I can't be bothered. The few times that I have, it was either a few grams under or a few (no more than 5) grams over. Nothing that would really make a difference. Machines in factories make them similar sizes so I don't think it's necessary for most things. I'm just wondering if you weigh everything that's prepackaged, and if you weigh some things what are they?
Hi
I do weigh some things, If You are considering Rice cakes that usually come in a multi pack than Yes I weigh my Frozen vegetables for example. I weigh my Cereals for example. Anything that has both a weight and size listed for the servings then I find that weight is more accurate.
Good Luck
RogerI'd guess I weight 90%. I don't weigh eggs. I occasionally weigh individual yogurt cups. Those types of things I feel will balance out. Granola bars, rice cakes, sliced cheese, candy, and chips can be too far off the single package serving. I've had slices of cheese weighing 30 grams when a serving slice is labeled 25 grams.
Some people don't care to weigh every thing and go with it all balancing out. Some weigh every thing. Some weigh most things. Whatever works for you.
The thing to remember is that the foods we buy that are prepackaged must be at least the stated amount. For example the 12 ounces of sliced cheese package has to be at least 12 ounces, it can be higher but not lower or they can end up in trouble with the state weights and measures people and they would rather err on the high side and not have the bad publicity and fines that can happen otherwise.
Have a Nice Weekend
Roger
Yeah, I know that. It doesn't make each individual slice of cheese weighing the same amount. Some are more, some less, some on par. The whole package weight might be exactly 454 grams, but each slice will not weigh 25 grams and that's my point.
When you get to the point in weight loss when "I'm doing everything right and not losing", the first (and imo best step) is to tighten up on logging foods which means weighing/measuring stuff. I got to that point, started weighing all the little stuff, and BOOM, weight loss again. Now it's just a habit and I prefer to have as accurate as possible food logs. Hells, I even log (weigh/measure) my IDGAF days.2 -
dissentingdude wrote: »I've gotten into the habit of doing it.
There's a lot of variance.
Somethings I'll notice they consistently weigh what they should and from there just trust it.
I always strive to be within 20 calories of my goal, so the meticulousness helps.
Yeah and that's why I do it too... those 10 and 20 extra calories add up at the end of the day, and it could make the difference between eating a 100 ice cream bar or not (which would actually put me 100 calories over - on a 200 or less deficit, it's a problem).
You just have to know that 90% of prepackaged products weigh more than what the package says - and the label itself can already be up to 30% off. That's why a lot of people who only eat packaged food don't lose weight - nothing wrong with packaged foods, you just often end up eating more than you think when you have a lot of it.2 -
almost never, no. I'm into mfp, not ocd.0
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85Cardinals wrote: »almost never, no. I'm into mfp, not ocd.
Some people are working with a deficit as low as 100-150 calories a day. Product labels are allowed to be off by up to 20%. This can wipe out a deficit in a heartbeat if you aren't careful. The people weighing their food aren't OCD, they're weight losers.3 -
I have been lately, and I was surprised to find that often my food weighed LESS than the serving size suggested. Like 4 frozen taquitos should be 2 servings, but only weighed as much as 1.7 servings.
But on other things, like canned soup, I noticed that it said things like "about 2" servings in the whole can. But a serving is 240mL, and the can says it contains 556mL total. Which is 2.3 servings. So I have started paying attention to things like that.0
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